I. Overview of alloy soft magnetic industry

1.1 soft magnetic materials are important materials in the era of electric power and artificial intelligence.

Magnetic materials can be divided into two types: permanent magnet and soft magnetic. Permanent magnetic materials, also known as hard magnetic materials, can retain their remanence for a long time, have high coercivity and can withstand less strong magnetic field interference. Correspondingly, soft magnetic materials have low coercivity and high permeability, so they are easy to be magnetized by external magnetic field and demagnetized easily. Its main work and energy is the conversion and transmission of magnetic and electromagnetic energy, which is widely used in electric energy conversion equipment and is an important material in the era of electronic power. Soft magnetic materials can be divided into three categories: metal soft magnetic, ferrite soft magnetic, amorphous and nanocrystalline. Metal soft magnetic is widely used, with an annual output of more than one million tons in the world, which can be subdivided into pure iron, silicon steel, permalloy, metal soft magnetic powder core and other categories, among which the metal soft magnetic powder core has the best performance. it is widely used in photovoltaic, energy storage, new energy automobile and other plates.

1.2 Development of soft magnetic materials

Soft magnetic materials have been used in industry for more than 100 years, and can be divided into four development stages according to the time sequence.

In the first stage, from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, soft magnetic alloys such as pure iron and silicon steel came out one after another. Pure iron is the earliest soft magnetic material in industry. In 1886, West inshouse Electric Company of the United States first used hot-rolled low-carbon steel sheet with about 0.4% impurity content to make transformer laminated core. With the rise of power industry and telecommunications technology, low carbon steel is widely used to make motors and transformers. At the beginning of the 20th century, silicon steel sheet was developed instead of low carbon steel, which improved the efficiency and reduced the loss. Up to now, silicon steel sheet still occupies the first place in the use of soft magnetic materials in the power industry. At the same time, with the development of telephone technology, the requirement of high permeability of materials is put forward in weak electricity engineering, and all kinds of soft magnetic alloys such as Fe-Ni system emerge as the times require. In the 1920s, the rise of radio technology promoted the development of high permeability alloys, such as 78Ni-Fe, Mumetal, 77Ni-5Cu-Fe, Perminvar,43Ni-23Co-Fe, 50Co-2V-Fe and permalloy magnetic powder cores.

The second stage is from 1930s to 1940s, with the rapid development of metal soft magnetic materials, ferrite soft magnetic materials came into being. From 1930s to 1940s, metal soft magnetic materials developed rapidly in varieties, properties and applications. During this period, multi-component permalloy, Fe-Si-Al powdered high permeability alloy and unidirectional silicon steel were developed, and carbonyl iron powder was pressed into iron powder core. At the same time, the research on ferrite also began: with the development of high frequency radio technology, there is an urgent need for a material with both ferromagnetism and high resistivity in production. in 1935, Snoek in the Philips laboratory of the Netherlands successfully developed ferrites suitable for high frequency applications, realizing the industrialization of spinel zinc ferrites and opening the prelude to the application of soft magnetic ferrites in industry. In the third stage, from 1950s to 1970s, great breakthroughs were made in ferrite production, and the invention of nanocrystalline alloys became a new milestone in the development of soft magnetic materials. In the 1950s, many types of ferrites such as garnet ferrite and planar ferrite were developed, which laid a solid industrial foundation for ferrite. After 20 years of development to the 1970s, the permeability of ferrites increased significantly, the loss decreased and the frequency band widened. In 1988, Hitachi Metal Company of Japan developed nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloys by crystallization treatment on the basis of amorphous alloys. The outstanding advantage of this kind of alloys lies in that they have both high magnetic induction of iron-based amorphous alloys and high permeability and low loss of cobalt-based amorphous alloys. It is a kind of low-cost iron-based material because it has few components and does not contain valuable elements such as Co, Zr, Nb, B and so on. The invention of nanocrystalline alloys is a breakthrough in soft magnetic materials, which pushes the research and development of amorphous alloys to a new and most exciting part.

The fourth stage is the industrialization of high-performance soft magnetic composites since in the 20th century, and the market share is increasing year by year. Except for the iron powder cores developed at the beginning of the 20th century, most magnetic powder cores were developed by in the 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, began mass production of carbonyl iron powder core, iron-silicon-aluminum alloy magnetic powder core was successfully developed and gradually realized industrialization, iron-silicon magnetic powder core, high flux magnetic powder core and iron-nickel-molybdenum magnetic powder core came out one after another. In 1984, the American Allied Company pressed the amorphous powder into an amorphous magnetic powder core, which has the properties of low loss and high DC bias, but the cost is relatively high. In recent years, because soft magnetic composites have the advantages of both high saturation flux density and high application frequency band, the market share is increasing rapidly year by year.

1.3 the routes of the two materials are iterated continuously, and the comprehensive properties of metal soft magnetic powder cores are outstanding.

Metal soft magnetic powder core and amorphous nanocrystalline are two major development routes of high-end soft magnetic materials at present. The metal soft magnetic powder core not only improves the defect of low soft permeability of traditional metal, but also achieves the saturation magnetic induction intensity much higher than that of ferrite soft magnetic, and its comprehensive performance is excellent. On the other hand, amorphous nanocrystals remove the cost disadvantage, have more excellent comprehensive properties, and have the characteristics of energy saving in manufacturing, application and recovery, so they are green recyclable materials in the whole life cycle.

Metal soft magnetic powder core

Metal soft magnetic powder core is a soft magnetic material pressed by magnetic powder covered by insulating medium. it is the best soft magnetic material in the field of soft magnetic materials. The magnetic properties of soft magnetic powder core combine the advantages of metal soft magnetic materials and soft magnetic ferrites, because the powder uses ferromagnetic particles, the saturation magnetic induction intensity is high, and because of the existence of insulating layer, its resistivity is also high. In terms of forming process, it is more mature than amorphous soft magnetic and has strong plasticity. The soft magnetic powder core can meet the needs of high frequency (KHz~MHz) use and volume miniaturization at the same time, and can be processed into ring, E-type, U-type and so on to meet different applications.

Metal soft magnetic powder core can be divided into iron powder core, carbonyl iron powder core, iron-silicon-aluminum magnetic powder core, iron-silicon magnetic powder core, high flux magnetic powder core, iron-nickel-molybdenum magnetic powder core. Among the alloy metal soft magnetic powder core materials, the metal iron-nickel powder core material has excellent properties, but it is difficult to be used on a large scale because of its high price. Although iron-based amorphous powder core materials have good core loss and saturation characteristics, there are still some structural problems in technology, such as reliability and pressing of magnetic core forming, which are difficult to be solved completely in a short time, and mass production and use are still difficult to achieve. Under medium and high frequency working conditions, iron-silicon metal powder core soft magnetic materials are one of the ideal materials that can meet the requirements. Iron powder core: it is made of pure iron powder as raw material, insulated and coated with organic adhesive. It is widely used in energy storage inductor, dimming reactance, EMI noise filter, DC output / input filter and so on. Carbonyl iron powder core: made of ultra-fine pure iron powder, with excellent magnetic bias and good high-frequency adaptability. Its DC bias characteristic is much better than that of other magnetic powder cores, so it is an ideal material for manufacturing high frequency switching circuit output chokes, resonant inductors and high frequency tuned magnetic cores.

Fe-Si-Al magnetic powder core: a kind of soft magnetic composite material produced by alloy powder of 85%Fe, 9%Si and 6%Al, which is suitable for power factor correction circuit (PFC inductor) and pulse flyback transformer combined energy storage filter inductor. Iron-silicon magnetic powder core: developed relatively late, made of alloy powder of 94%Fe and 6%Si, suitable for high current reactance, high energy storage power inductors, PFC inductors, etc., and is widely used in solar energy, wind energy, hybrid vehicles and other new energy fields. High flux powder core: the magnetic powder core with the highest flux density has excellent DC bias characteristics, low loss and high energy storage characteristics. High flux powder cores are very suitable for applications with high power and large DC bias, such as dimming inductors, flyback transformers, on-line noise filters, pulse transformers and power return correction inductors. Iron-nickel-molybdenum magnetic powder core: a kind of powder core material made of alloy powder of 17%Fe, 81%Ni and 2%Mo, also known as molybdenum permalloy magnetic powder core, which has the characteristics of high permeability, high resistivity, low hysteresis and low eddy current loss. In the field of magnetic powder core, the loss of Fe-Ni-Mo magnetic powder core is the lowest, and it also has the best temperature stability. Suitable for flyback transformers, high Q filters, step-up inductors, power factor correction inductors (PFC inductors), filters, etc.

Amorphous nanocrystals

Amorphous nanocrystalline soft magnetic materials have the advantages of high saturation magnetic induction, high permeability, low loss, good temperature characteristics and temperature stability. it is a substitute for traditional silicon steel, ferrite and permalloy. known as a new green energy-saving material in the 21 century, amorphous nanocrystalline soft magnetic materials are widely used in information communications and power electronics industries, promoting and realizing the development of electronic products in the direction of energy saving, miniaturization and high frequency.

(1) amorphous alloy industry

Amorphous alloy, also known as "liquid metal, metal glass", is a new type of soft magnetic alloy material. It mainly contains iron, silicon, boron and other elements. The manufacturing process of the main amorphous alloy ribbons is that the alloy melt is cooled rapidly at the rate of 106 ℃ per second by rapid cooling technology to form amorphous alloy ribbons with a thickness of about 0.03mm. The physical state is that the metal atoms are disordered and amorphous. Thanks to the special atomic structure formed by the above extreme production processes, amorphous alloys have excellent properties such as low coercivity, high permeability, high resistivity, high temperature corrosion resistance and high toughness. Amorphous alloys have advantages in energy saving and emission reduction because of their high electromagnetic energy conversion efficiency. At present, amorphous alloy materials are mainly used in the field of distribution transformer. Compared with silicon steel, amorphous alloy material has outstanding characteristics of energy saving and environmental protection, and it is a whole life cycle recyclable green material of "manufacturing energy saving, use energy saving, recycling energy saving". On the application side, the no-load loss of the amorphous transformer can be reduced by about 60% compared with the silicon steel transformer, realizing energy saving; on the recovery side, the waste amorphous core can be remelted into amorphous alloy ribbons through a medium frequency furnace. The silicon and boron elements in the amorphous iron core can basically be recycled to achieve recovery and energy saving.

(2) Nanocrystalline alloy industry

Nanocrystals mainly refer to iron-based nanocrystalline alloys, which are formed by rapid cooling of iron, silicon, boron and a small amount of copper, niobium and other elements, followed by highly controlled annealing. Materials with nanocrystalline and amorphous structures are formed. Nanocrystalline materials benefit from the advantages of high saturation magnetic density, high permeability and high Curie temperature. Compared with ferrite soft magnetic materials, nanocrystalline materials have significant advantages in the pursuit of miniaturization, lightweight and complex temperature. It is mainly used in the production of inductor components, electronic transformers, transformers, sensors and other products, can be used in new energy vehicles, consumer electronics, new energy power generation, home appliances and particle accelerators and other fields. Especially in recent years, with the gradual promotion of the application of nanocrystalline alloy materials in emerging industries, such as wireless charging modules and new energy vehicle motors, it has gradually opened up a broad market growth space.

Second, demand: the new energy market blossoms at many points, and the field of high computing power is highly scalable.

2.1 Photovoltaic & energy storage develops into the fast lane, and the alloy soft magnetic basic disk is robust

Soft magnetic materials are mainly used in the production of inverter in the field of photovoltaic power generation and energy storage. Photovoltaic inverter and energy storage inverter are homologous to a large extent, and the two industries promote each other and develop in coordination. Optical storage inverter, as the core equipment of photovoltaic power generation system, its working principle is to convert the variable DC voltage generated by photovoltaic solar panels into city frequency AC voltage, feedback back to the commercial transmission system, or for off-grid power grid use. When the power supply is surplus in the trough period, the electric energy of the power grid is charged and stored through the inverter charge and discharge controller. In the future, the inverter can continue to optimize the conversion of irregular AC current into sinusoidal AC current, the output current is more stable and safe, has a wide range of application, is convenient for long-distance transmission, and has a broad market prospect.

Optical storage inverter is mainly divided into centralized type, group series type, distributed type, micro type and so on. Soft magnetic materials are mainly used in centralized and series inverters. The soft magnetic material of centralized inverter is mainly silicon steel sheet, which converts DC current into AC current through the current generated by series and parallel groups. Because of its large area, it is usually built in Gobi Desert and other areas, and is used in large commercial roofs, industrial factories and so on. Because of the need to output a large current, that is, the reactor needs to have a high anti-saturation ability, the silicon steel sheet with low iron loss rate and high quality is selected. At present, it has been developed to use oriented silicon steel sheet instead of non-oriented silicon steel as drive motor stator to improve efficiency; the soft magnetic material of series inverter is mainly metal soft magnetic powder core, which is equipped with one inverter for each photovoltaic group and connected to the grid in parallel, which is mainly used in small business roofs, parking lots, residential buildings and so on. Because of the high switching frequency of the series inverter, the metal soft magnetic powder core with low power loss and low coercivity is selected.

1. The compound growth rate of soft magnetic demand in photovoltaic field is about 31% in the future.

The photovoltaic power station project has entered the era of "cheap access to the Internet", and the capital investment has increased explosively. According to the data of China Photovoltaic Industry Association and the International Energy Administration, the new installed capacity of photovoltaic machines in the world and China in 2021 will be 175GW and 55GW respectively. At the same time, the policy of photovoltaic industry will continue to be favorable. According to the "10th five-year Plan" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration, it is required to speed up the construction of large-scale wind power photovoltaic base projects. It is expected that the new installed capacity of photovoltaic machines will be 250GW in 2022 and will reach 518GW in 2025. The CAGR in 2022-2025 is about 30%.

The increase of distributed share leads to the rapid growth of the demand for high-performance soft magnetic materials. Distributed photovoltaic power station is a new type of comprehensive utilization of power generation and energy sources with broad development prospects, which has the advantages of flexible scale, low pollution and high utilization rate. In March 2022, the "14th five-year Plan for Building Energy Saving and Green Building Development" of the Ministry of Housing proposed that by 2025, the installed capacity of solar photovoltaic of new buildings in the country will be more than 50GW. In May 2022, the European Union issued a solar energy strategy, proposing the full development of roof solar energy. Under the trend of global carbon reduction and energy independence, distributed photovoltaic may usher in a historic opportunity. From 2017 to 2022, the installed capacity of distributed photovoltaic in China has been expanded from 19.4GW to 51.1GW. The development of distributed photovoltaic power stations has led to an increase in the demand for series inverters. The permeability of Chinese series inverters has increased from 38% in 2017 to 59% in 2022, which is good for the metal soft magnetic powder core market. At present, Huawei has launched the 325KW series inverter, which will replace the 500KW centralized inverter. In the future, the high-efficiency and low-cost series inverter will further expand its market share, and the demand for metal soft magnetic powder core materials will continue to be strong.

The demand for inverter replacement also brings a considerable incremental market for metal soft magnetic powder cores. The life of photovoltaic modules is generally about 20-25 years. In the life cycle of photovoltaic modules, the inverter needs to be replaced at least once. Assuming that the inverter is replaced once every 10 years, the global photovoltaic inverter replacement demand is expected to be 51GW in 2025.

It is estimated that the demand of metal soft magnetic powder core in the field of photovoltaic inverter will be 78500 tons in 2025, with a compound growth rate of 31%. According to the industry production data, the current soft magnetic consumption in the photovoltaic field is 200t / GW. Considering that the material upgrading may reduce the unit consumption in the photovoltaic field, we conservatively estimate that the unit soft magnetic consumption in the photovoltaic field will be 180t / GW in 2025. According to the proportion of 55% of the world's distributed photovoltaic power stations in 2025, the consumption of metal soft magnetic powder cores for photovoltaic inverters in 2025 is 78500 tons, representing a compound growth rate of 31% in three years.

2. The compound growth rate of soft magnetic demand in the field of energy storage is about 85% in the future.

The development of energy storage technology has become one of the most important links in the field of new energy power generation. "Source-grid-load-storage" is four indispensable elements in the new power system. Energy storage technology is of great value. After the new energy is incorporated into the power grid, the energy storage can achieve real-time balance in power, improve the system capacity coefficient and energy consumption capacity, cut peaks and fill valleys, so as to provide a guarantee for energy security, which is an important part of the new power system and modern energy system. At present, the development of energy storage technology is particularly important under the circumstances of high power cost, weak coordination capacity of power grid and lack of power supply reliability.

The policy of the energy storage market is good enough and the track is wide enough. Since 2022, the policy level has paid great attention to the energy storage industry, and a series of favorable policies have been issued continuously: in January, the "implementation Plan for the Development of New Energy Storage in the 14th five-year Plan" set the development goal of a new type of energy storage; in June, 48 local energy storage policies have been issued, involving energy storage subsidies, energy storage equipment planning, energy storage facilities construction and so on. Under the favorable policies, the energy storage industry is growing rapidly, and the "new energy + energy storage" project has been rolled out rapidly throughout the country. 2023 may become the "year of great storage", and the market demand for energy storage of soft magnetic materials will break out soon. According to the industry production data, the unit consumption of metal soft magnetic powder core for energy storage is 200t / GW. It is estimated that the new installed capacity of global energy storage 50GW in 2023, an increase of 120% compared with the same period last year, may reach 146GW in 2025. Based on this, it is estimated that the global demand for soft magnetism in the field of energy storage will reach 29200 tons, and the CAGR in 2022-2025 will be about 85%.

2.2 New energy vehicles are empowered on the track, and the demand for alloy soft magnetism is accelerated.

Soft magnetic materials are mainly used in three application fields: charging pile of new energy vehicle plate, vehicle AC/DC charger and vehicle DC/DC converter. The AC/DC charger can output the input AC current as DC, which is a device for charging the power battery; the DC/DC converter can convert high voltage and small current into low voltage and high current, which is used to power other electronic devices in the car. In addition, soft magnetic materials are also used in other parts of the car, such as keyless system, audio horn, reversing image and so on. The most widely used soft magnetic material in the field of charging pile is the high frequency PFC inductor made of soft magnetic powder core, which plays the role of energy storage and filtering. Fe-Si magnetic powder material has high magnetic induction intensity, small volume, strong durability and superimposed segmented air gap core technology, which can effectively avoid the defects such as excessive amplitude of magnetic flux density, high loss and high temperature during the operation of traditional converters, and reduce air gap loss. Improve conversion efficiency, service life, safety and reliability. Soft magnetic materials may realize wireless dynamic charging mode for new energy vehicles. As the wireless charger is more widely used in new energy vehicles and the power required is increased, it will become another incremental market of alloy soft magnetism in the future. Compared with traditional charging, wireless charging has the advantages of safety and flexibility, especially in the dynamic charging mode, which can charge the electric vehicle in real time and better meet the requirements of consumers for the battery life of electric vehicles.

The high voltage trend is a new focus of the demand for metal soft magnetic powder cores. Metal soft magnetic powder core is mainly used for OBC inductor of EV model, 0.7kg for bicycle, boost inductor and OBC inductor for PHEV, and 3.3kg for bicycle. According to the current sales proportion of pure electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, the average consumption of metal soft magnetic cores per new energy vehicle is about 1.22kg, corresponding to the global demand for metal soft magnetic cores of 13200 tons in 2022. In order to deal with the problems of short service life and slow charging of EV vehicles, the industry has proposed a solution to raise the voltage from 400V to 800V. To achieve this solution, it is necessary to install a boost inductor on the DC/DC converter, which will increase the amount of EV vehicles from the original 0.7kg to about 2.7kg, with an increase rate of about 300%. According to the average unit consumption 2.82kg of each new energy vehicle in 2025, the global soft magnetic demand of new energy vehicle will reach 66000 tons, and the CAGR from 2022 to 2025 will be 71.0%.

The increase in the number of new energy vehicles has led to an increase in demand for charging piles, and the discharge of charging piles in European and American markets is expected. According to the statistics of the China charging Alliance, the total number of public and private charging piles in China was about 450000 in 2017 and 5.21 million in 2022. The CAGR in 2017-2022 accelerated the pace of charging pile construction in 2022. The total number of charging piles increased by 99 percent compared with the same period last year, and the increase ratio of vehicle piles was 2.651. In February 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on organizing the pilot work in the pilot area of fully electric vehicles in the public domain. The policy requires that the ratio of new public piles to the promotion of public new energy vehicles should strive to reach 1:1, and the proportion of unbuilt rechargeable piles in public parking areas in China still has 32.20%, both of which have some room for decline. Globally, the ratio of new energy piles in Europe is as high as 12.3: 1 in 2021, and the ratio of piles in the United States is as high as 15.9. In August 2022, the US enacted the inflation reduction Act (IRA) to expand the tax credit: it plans to expand the tax credit for a single charging station from $30,000 to $100000 from 2023. With the increase of subsidy policy, it is expected that the charging pile will usher in a period of accelerated construction.

DC fast charging pile expands the demand of metal soft magnetic powder core, and the global soft magnetic market of rechargeable pile may reach 1.7 billion yuan in 2025. DC fast charging is the conversion of three-phase alternating current into high-voltage direct current which can directly charge the lithium battery of electric vehicle through the conversion of AC/DC module. The core components are AC/DC converter, APFC and rectifier. According to the industry production data, the current consumption of metal soft magnetic powder core per kw is 0.1kg. With the continuous improvement of the mileage of electric vehicles, the market has put forward higher demand for energy replenishment speed, the superimposed mainframe factory has upgraded the fast charging technology, and the permeability of high voltage and fast filling pile has gradually increased. At present, the charging pile of 100kw in the industry has begun mass production and is expected to be upgraded to 300-400kw in the future. It is conservatively assumed that due to technological upgrading, the unit consumption of metal soft magnetic cores per kw will be reduced from 0.1kg to 0.06kg in the future, then the amount of metal soft magnetic cores per charging pile will still be greatly increased from the original 2kg to 18kg. Assuming that the permeability of 300-400kw charging piles accounts for 40% of DC charging piles by 2025, the average unit consumption of each charging pile is 10.8kg, based on which it is estimated that the global demand for metal soft magnetic cores in 2025 is about 34900 tons, and the CAGR in 2022-2025 is 191%.

2.3 increase the permeability of frequency conversion air conditioners to promote the soft magnetic demand of alloys

The soft magnetic material is mainly used in the PFC inductor of the frequency conversion air-conditioning frequency converter, which plays the role of regulating the input power factor of the power supply and suppressing the energy storage boost inductor of the high-order harmonics in the power grid. According to industry online data, China's total production of air conditioners in 2022 is 222.473 million, and according to the growth rate of consumer goods, China's total production of air conditioners is expected to be 244.521 million in 2025. In order to meet the requirements of energy saving and consumption reduction, the permeability of domestic variable frequency air conditioners is expected to increase from the current 57% to about 80%. Based on this, it is estimated that the output of variable frequency air conditioners in China will be 195.617 million units in 2025. Assuming that China accounts for 80% of global production of air conditioners, global production of variable frequency air conditioners will rise to 244.521 million units in 2025. The demand for soft magnetic materials for each household variable frequency air conditioner is about 0.25kg, and the global soft magnetic demand for frequency conversion air conditioners will be 61100 tons in 2025 and 15.7% CAGR in 2022-2025.

2.4 the demand for alloy soft magnetism is expected to increase due to the digital economy and the trend of high frequency in UPS field.

In the form of magnetic components (mainly ferrite PC44 and iron-silicon powder core soft magnetic materials), soft magnetic materials are used in UPS inverter, input, storage battery, DC-DC converter and other areas, including main transformer, resonant inductor, PFC inductor, common mode inductor, differential mode inductor and so on. UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), that is, uninterruptible power supply, is a kind of power protection equipment with energy storage device, inverter as the main component and stable voltage and frequency output. It is mainly used in single computer, computer network system or other power electronic equipment to provide uninterrupted power supply. When the city power input is normal, the UPS stabilizes the city power and supplies it to the load. At this time, the UPS essentially acts as an AC city power regulator, and it also charges the battery in the machine. When the city power is interrupted, UPS immediately converts the power of the battery in the machine into 220V AC through the inverter to maintain the normal operation of the load and protect the hardware and software of the load from damage. The UPS inductor made of soft magnetic material is used in high frequency UPS power supply to realize the functions of energy storage, filtering, voltage stabilization, anti-interference and so on.

The basic structure of UPS is a set of rectifier and charger that turns alternating current into direct current, and an inverter that turns direct current into alternating current. The battery stores energy when the alternating current is supplied normally and is maintained at a normal charging voltage. Once the municipal power supply is interrupted, the battery immediately supplies power to the inverter to ensure the AC output voltage of the UPS power supply. In December 2021, the State Council issued the Digital economy Development Plan of the 14th five-year Plan, which clearly requires the development of cloud-network coordination and computing network integration in the aspect of "optimizing and upgrading digital infrastructure". In February 2022, the project of "calculating the number of the East and the West" was officially launched in an all-round way, and the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued a circular, agreeing to start the construction of national computing hub nodes in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, Chengdu and Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu and Ningxia, and planned 10 national data center clusters. The overall layout of the national integration big data center system has been completed. Recently, the CEO Conference of artificial Intelligence Industry in China (Chengdu) has reported that the country's first special policy on the computing industry is about to be unveiled. The policy has carried out systematic thinking and overall design from three aspects: continuously improving the energy level of computing facilities, promoting the application of power enabling, and promoting the efficient allocation of supply and demand. The market demand for large-capacity, modular, customized, high-frequency, high-power uninterruptible power supply (UPS) products is growing rapidly, and the market demand is also shifting to high-end products. Modular uninterruptible power supply (UPS) can effectively improve product capacity and reliability, and will become the main development direction of the market in the future. In 2022, the global soft magnetic consumption in the UPS field is about 25000 tons, and the market scale is about 1 billion yuan. Assuming that the growth rate of the industry remains around 20%, the global consumption of soft magnets for UPS will reach 43200 tons in 2025.

2.5 the total global demand for alloy soft magnets is growing rapidly, with a compound growth rate of 42% in the next three years.

Since the rise of the new energy industry, the total global demand for soft magnetic cores has continued to grow at a high speed. It is estimated that by 2025, the total global demand will reach 312000 tons, the corresponding market space will be 11.7 billion, and the CAGR will be 42% in 2022-2025. The three fastest growing downstream demand are charging piles, energy storage, and new energy vehicles, with CAGR of 191%, 85% and 71%, respectively.

Third, the hero behind the power support, the metal soft magnetic powder core has great potential.

Computing power is one of the three core elements in the development of artificial intelligence. There are two stages for AI to build a model, the first stage is to build a pre-training model with super-calculation and data, and the second stage is to carry out targeted training on the pre-training model. Both of these processes involve high-power and high-frequency computing, and the demand for computing power is extremely high. In addition, the rise of technologies such as 5G, big data and blockchain, as well as the accelerated landing of applications such as telemedicine, intelligent education, self-driving, and financial technology, all mark the approaching of the "computing era".

The chip inductor made of metal soft magnetic powder can be used to supply power at the front end of the chip and is expected to play an important role in the "computing age". The prerequisite for improving computing power is to have more efficient operating hardware equipment, while metal soft magnetic material inductors have the advantages of higher efficiency, small volume and ability to respond to large current changes, which can be widely used in server, communication power supply, GPU, FPGA, power module, notebook computer, mining machine and other fields. At present, the chip inductor is mainly made of ferrite, but the saturation characteristic of ferrite is poor. with the miniaturization of power supply module and the increase of application power in the future, the volume and saturation characteristics of ferrite inductor have been difficult to meet the development requirements of high computing force domain. With the continuous upgrading and iteration of technology, metal soft magnetic materials will be widely used in high-power computing equipment and become the "infrastructure" of the computing era.

IV. Supply: concentration of global-domestic industry pattern

In the global market, the top four suppliers of metal soft magnetic cores are Platinum Co., Ltd., Dongmu Co., Ltd., Magnetics (American American Magnetics), Changsung Corp. (Korea Changxing), the CR4 is about 58%, the industry concentration is high. According to the caliber of shipments, the market share of platinum new metal soft magnetic powder cores is about 24%, Dongmu shares is about 17%, and Metro and Changxing account for about 17%. In the international market, the United States, South Korea, Japan and some European countries started early in the production of soft magnetic materials, and their new product development capabilities are strong, and the products are mainly concentrated in new energy vehicles, data power supplies and other sectors. Platinum new materials and Dongmu shares take photovoltaic as the power point, quickly increase the volume, seize the domestic market of Metro Magneto and Changxing, and plan to expand overseas.

According to shipping statistics, in the field of soft magnetic powder cores for photovoltaic and energy storage, Platinum New Materials and Dongmu shares account for about 70% of the global market, of which Platinum New Materials and Dongmu shares account for 44% and 23%. In the field of soft magnetic powder cores for new energy vehicles, Platinum New Materials and Dongmu shares are equally divided, with a global market share of about 21% and 22% respectively, and there is still a lot of room for domestic alternatives in the future.

In 2025, the total production capacity of metal soft magnetic powder (core) in China is expected to exceed 250000 tons, but there is still a large supply gap. Due to the high net profit level of the soft magnetic powder core industry, many upstream and downstream of the industrial chain are attracted to set foot in this field. It is expected that the future competition pattern of the industry will show the coexistence of platinum new materials, Dongmu shares, and other new entrants such as Yunlu shares and Hengdian Dongmagnets.

V. High technical and technological barriers

5.1 the technological process is complex and the technical threshold is high

The preparation process of metal soft magnetic powder core is very difficult, which mainly includes four links: powder making, insulation coating, pressing and heat treatment.

1. Pulverizing technology

Powder making is the most important link in the production of magnetic powder core. the difference between formula and particle size plays a decisive role in the final permeability, bias and loss of the product. the main flow technology can be divided into gas atomization method, water atomization method and crushing method. the average particle size of the powder can reach 25-30 μ m.

(1) Gas atomization

The comprehensive performance of the powder prepared by gas atomization is the best, but the process itself is difficult. The principle is that the molten steel is crushed and cooled by nitrogen under high pressure to form powder, in which nitrogen undertakes both cooling and crushing. The sphericity of the gas atomized powder is relatively better, so that the surface of the insulating layer of the subsequent pressing link is more complete and the pressing density is higher, which has the characteristics of high resistivity and excellent DC bias. The main technical difficulties lie in four core technologies: 1, preparation technology of low oxygen and high purity alloy powder 2, preparation technology of ultra-fine gas atomized alloy powder 3, preparation technology of high sphericity powder 4, accurate composition control and stable particle size distribution.

① Fe-Si, Fe-Si-Al, Fe-Si-Cr gas atomized soft magnetic powders

Based on iron, silicon, aluminum and chromium, alloy powders with low oxygen content and good sphericity are prepared by alloy melting and high pressure nitrogen atomization, and the composition needs to be continuously optimized. Different alloy powders are developed for different application fields such as high frequency and high current to ensure that the molded products have excellent DC bias and loss characteristics.

② flake soft magnetic powder

With the use of related technology, flake alloy soft magnetic powder has the characteristics of high purity, smooth surface, narrow particle size distribution, large width-to-thickness ratio and so on, so as to increase the permeability and apply to related high-precision fields.

③ alloy steel powder

Alloy steel powder is widely used in metal injection molding, thermal spraying, laser cladding, die steel and other materials due to high purity nitrogen atomization, low oxygen content, high purity and good sphericity. Need to achieve good sphericity and fluidity, high bulk density and vibrating density, low oxygen content, high purity, uniform composition, non-segregation, ultra-fine (D50)

(2) Water atomization

Compared with gas atomization, the cost of water atomization powder is lower, and it is easier to realize the preparation of powder, but the quality of the powder is lower. The principle is that water is used as the medium to cool the high temperature liquid alloy, because the water can be recycled, so the cost is reduced, but the disadvantage is that the water will decompose into oxygen molecules and oxidize the metal surface, which will increase the stone powder content. can not be used in high-frequency components, will lead to excessive heat. In addition, in terms of magnetic loss, there is also a gap between water atomization and gas atomization. At present, the leading enterprises in the industry are constantly adjusting the process and optimizing the equipment, the sphericity of water atomized powder is close to that of gas atomized powder, and the index has been improved.

(3) fragmentation method

Ball milling and crushing is a traditional method for preparing soft magnetic powder. the properties of the powder are general, but the performance and price is relatively high. The step of ball milling is to raise the grinding body in the cylinder to a certain height and endow it with potential energy and ejection kinetic energy. Then, the grinding body with a certain initial speed falls according to the parabolic trajectory, and the materials fed from the feed end of the mill are impacted and grinded over and over again, so that the materials between the grinding media are crushed by impact, thus the magnetic powder is obtained.

2. Insulation coating technology

Insulation coating is not only an important step in the preparation process of magnetic powder core, but also the key to directly determine the magnetic properties of magnetic powder core. The type and amount of coating solution have a key influence on the magnetic properties of the core. The coating of magnetic powder core requires that a uniform and complete coating film can be formed on the particle surface, and it can withstand high temperature, good insulation, and can not be destroyed under large forming pressure. The coating agents of metal magnetic powder core are usually divided into organic coating, inorganic coating and organic-inorganic composite coating. At present, the cutting-edge technology is organic-inorganic composite coating, and chemical and physical composite coating is used. The specific process is that some modified inorganic materials are mixed with organic materials, and the composite coating film on the surface of magnetic powder particles has the comprehensive properties of organic and inorganic materials. Then, on the basis of the pure physical inorganic-organic mixed coating method, the insulating film was formed by chemical reaction on the surface of magnetic powder, and then the organic material was coated twice to form inorganic-organic composite multilayer coating film. The double coating improves the insulation effect, increases the resistivity between the magnetic powder particles, reduces the eddy current loss, improves the frequency stability, and greatly improves the magnetic and mechanical properties of the magnetic powder core.

3. Pressing technology

Pressing forming is to press the coated alloy powder into various shapes according to the need. Generally speaking, the higher the forming pressure is, the denser the core is, and the higher the density is, the greater the effective permeability is. In order to achieve high permeability, greater molding pressure is needed. However, if the forming pressure is too high, it will destroy the coating on the surface of the alloy powder, reduce the insulation between the particles and increase the loss of the magnetic core, so there is considerable technological difficulty.

4. Heat treatment technology

Heat treatment is one of the key steps in the preparation of magnetic powder core. In order to reduce the hysteresis loss, it is generally necessary to carry out high temperature heat treatment after powder pressing, but if the heat treatment temperature is too high, it will destroy the inter-particle insulation coating and reduce the resistivity between particles, resulting in the increase of eddy current loss. Heat treatment can effectively change the microstructure of the magnetic core and optimize the performance of the magnetic core. Therefore, for the heat treatment process, it is necessary to control the appropriate heat treatment temperature.

5.2 process accumulation: gain trial and error experience through long-time and multi-frequency practice

Soft magnetic powder core takes a long time to process and accumulate. Most of the soft magnetic powder core categories, especially the new product research and development, only rely on theory, formula and computer simulation, it is difficult to achieve the quality required by customers. Superimposed downstream customers are mainly photovoltaic and new energy industries, and the quality assurance requirements for such products are usually 10-20 years, so the requirements for consistency and stability of upstream products are also high. In production practice, enterprises need to run through every link and pay attention to every detail. Only through many times and long-time attempts can the optimization of technology and products be realized. And customers have a great demand for personalized products and solutions, so enterprises need to switch formulations and change the amount of materials at any time, which also requires considerable process accumulation and experience.

5.3 customer certification: long running-in period and high stickiness with downstream customers

The concentration of metal soft magnetic powder cores downstream is generally high, and most of them are well-known enterprises at home and abroad. These enterprises have strict control procedures for the selection of material suppliers, from early contact to quality, environment, social responsibility and sustainable development and other management system review, sample testing, small batch trial to batch supply, and finally form a stable strategic cooperation and supply chain relationship, which requires a long process of business running-in and product technology certification. In addition, in order to maintain the stability of their products and long-term supply chain relationship, downstream customers usually do not change easily and even produce a certain degree of stickiness after selecting metal soft magnetic powder core suppliers and approved by long-term cooperation.

VI. Analysis of key companies

New platinum material

It is the first to introduce alloy soft magnetic chip inductors to replace ferrite in the field of high computing power, which can solve the computing pain points faced by the development of artificial intelligence. The FA1005 series chip inductors developed by the company have been certified by the most well-known chip companies at home and abroad, and begin to form income.

The existing production capacity of metal soft magnetic powder is 33000 tons, and it has been planned for more than 70,000 tons by 2025. The company mainly has Huidong and Heyuan two major production bases. At present, the 20,000-ton capacity of Heyuan plant has been completed and put into production. It is expected that the main capacity increase in 2023 will come from the slope of Heyuan base, and the company will carry out technical transformation to Huidong in 2025. The company will expand production in time according to market demand, and the total production capacity is expected to exceed 70,000 tons in the future.

The company has strong R & D strength and leads the industry in profitability. The company has gradually upgraded and improved the "iron-silicon first-generation" metal magnetic powder core, and has established a set of metal magnetic powder core system covering 5kHz~2MHz frequency band applications, which can meet the performance requirements of many application fields. In 21 and 22 years, the company successively launched a new series of iron and silicon products NPC and NPV, as new magnetic materials for the silicon carbide era, these two products not only improve the DC superposition characteristics, but also optimize the core loss, which can make a positive contribution to saving copper wire and improving efficiency for the power supply module. The company makes price adjustments through the continuous introduction of new products, and in the long run, we believe that the company's overall gross profit margin is expected to remain around 35%.

Dongmu shares

The company closely revolves around the development strategy of "based on the three new material technology platforms of powder compaction packs, soft magnetic composites SMC and metal injection molding MIM, committed to providing the best new material solutions and value-added services for new energy and high-end manufacturing", giving full play to the collaborative advantages of the three technology platforms in technology, customer and management, and grasping the development opportunities of the new energy industry. The company's net profit in 2022 is expected to increase by 462% Murray 539%. SMC plate revenue volume, net profit rapid growth. The company carried out equity acquisitions in March and July 2022, and successively merged Dongmukoda and Deqing Xinchen into the body, realizing the independent control of SMC raw materials. After the completion of the equity acquisition, the company's SMC plate net interest rate increased quarter by quarter, profitability significantly improved. At the same time, in 2022, the company successively launched the third generation low loss iron silicon aluminum magnetic powder core KPH- HP, the third generation high performance iron nickel magnetic powder core KH- HP, and the new generation low loss iron silicon magnetic powder core KSF- HP core, the new brand accumulation is rich.

The existing metal soft magnetic powder core production capacity of 36000 tons, the future is expected to exceed 100000 tons. In 2022, the company actively promoted the construction of Shanxi's second production base, that is, Shanxi's new production capacity layout "annual output of 60,000 tons of soft magnetic material industry base project". The production expansion of 60,000 tons will not only consolidate the company's position in the soft magnetic materials industry, but also help to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and further increase the added value and gross profit margin of the products. There is a good margin between packs and MIM. The profits of the packs sector are closely related to capacity utilization, under pressure due to macroeconomic impact on performance in 2022, this year is expected to comply with the economic recovery to achieve profit repair; MIM plate has achieved a turnaround in 2022, in addition to folding hinges and other demand, consumer electronics, new energy, medical devices and other areas have broad emerging market opportunities to be tapped.

Hengdian East Magnetic Field

Hengdian Group East Magnetic Co., Ltd. was founded in 1980, and the joint-stock company was restructured and established in March 1999. In August 2006, the company was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Is a "magnetic materials + devices", "photovoltaic + lithium electricity" two major industrial plates, "magnetic materials + new energy" two-wheel drive development of the national high-tech enterprises. The company specially sets up the soft magnetic division for the subordinate departments engaged in the research, development and production of soft magnetic products. There is a national postdoctoral workstation and the only Zhejiang magnetic product quality testing center. Independently developed manganese zinc DMR47, DMR95 DMR24 and nickel zinc ND5H, DN120L and metal magnetic powder DF series and other materials have the international leading level. Under the jurisdiction of 13 production plants, with the world's advanced soft magnetic series production and testing equipment, mainly produces a variety of manganese zinc ferrite, nickel zinc ferrite, metal magnetic powder core, deflection magnetic core four series of nearly 10,000 different specifications of products, widely used in communications, IT, home appliances, automotive electronics, green lighting electronics, industrial control and other fields. With an annual output of 35000 tons, it is the production and export base of soft magnetic products with the largest production scale and the most complete variety in China.

The company's existing soft magnetic business is mainly soft magnetic ferrite, but also gradually increasing the business volume of metal magnetic powder core. At present, the company has 40,000 tons of soft magnetic ferrite production capacity, magnetic powder core production capacity of 5000 tons, soft magnetic ferrite production capacity of 15000 tons has been put into production at the end of 2022, the future total production capacity of magnetic powder core is planned to be 10,000 tons.

Dragon magnetic science and technology

Anhui long Magnetic Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in 1998 and successfully listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in May 2020. The company is mainly engaged in the R & D, production and sales of permanent magnet ferrite and soft magnetic products, and currently has 7 production bases and 5 sales centers around the world. After years of efforts, the "long Magnetic" brand has been widely recognized in domestic and foreign markets, and the company has become the mainstream supplier of many well-known motor manufacturers in the world. Since 2020, the company has actively laid out and built soft magnetic projects. Although the company is mainly engaged in the related business of permanent magnet ferrite, in recent years, the company has explored the potential of the soft magnetic market and began to set up soft magnetic material powder preparation, magnetic core production (metal magnetic powder core, ferrite powder core), device development and other teams and production lines, relying on years of accumulation in the permanent magnet industry, to build a soft magnetic industry chain. Recently, the company's soft magnetic business has passed the photovoltaic inverter leader certification, is expected to achieve volume in 2023. The company plans to develop an integrated industry chain of "magnetic powder-powder core-device". The existing production capacity of metal soft magnetic core is 4000 tons and that of ferrite soft magnetic is 6000 tons.

Cloud Road Co., Ltd.

Qingdao Yunlu Advanced Materials Technology Co., Ltd. was established in December 2015. It is a national high-tech enterprise focusing on the field of advanced magnetic metal materials and has three major sectors: amorphous alloys, nanocrystalline alloys, and magnetic alloy powders. In November 2021, Yunlu shares were successfully listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The company has the three-dimensional "science, engineering, and design", full industry chain, and in-depth technology expansion capabilities that are rare in domestic materials companies. Its products cover global power equipment, mobile load motors, photovoltaics, power inductors for home appliances from 50Hz to 100MHz, wireless charging, chip inductors for consumer electronics, extreme applications, and ultra-wide band applications of EMI filters for power electronics. In 2022, with the release of the company's atomized powder production capacity, the cumulative revenue of powder series products will reach approximately 64 million yuan in 2022H1. At present, the company has an annual production capacity of 700 tons of crushed powder and an annual production capacity of 3900 tons of atomized powder, totaling 4600 tons. According to the "Industrialization of High-Quality Alloy Powder Products" fundraising project, the powder production capacity is expected to expand to 9650 tons in 2024.

Yitong Xincai

Hangzhou Yitong New Materials Co., Ltd., established in July 2000, is a high-tech enterprise with high-quality iron-based powder as its core business. The company was successfully listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on January 21, 2021. The company is one of the leading enterprises in China with independent intellectual property rights in the production of water-atomized iron-based series of powders. It has a first-class testing and development platform for domestic peers-the provincial water-atomized metal powder high-tech enterprise research and development center, equipped with advanced testing equipment at home and abroad. The company also has a scientific research team with rich industry experience and strong product research and development capabilities, bringing together senior talents in related majors such as iron and steel metallurgy, metal materials, powder metallurgy, mechanical design and manufacturing. In June 2022, the board of directors decided to build an annual output of 20,000 tons of metallic soft magnetic powder for new energy, with a construction period of 36 months. It is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2025. The company has accumulated rich production experience and atomized powder production technology in the field of metal powder, which is conducive to the company's entry into the soft magnetic powder market. The company's construction project on the original 156 acres of land in Hutang Block includes the production of magnetic materials with an annual output of 5000 tons. Currently, the plant equipment of this part of the project has been partially completed and is in the process of trial production and process optimization.